Wartime diseases such as scurvy and rickets are on the rise among British children because their junk food diets are worse than during rationing, doctors have warned.
 |
| Wartime diseases are returning to modern British children because their junk food diets are worse than during rationing |
Health chiefs said a the resurgence of such disease is being caused by parents' reliance on takeaways and microwave meals to feed their children.
Dr Mark Temple, chairman of the British Medical Association's public health medicine committee, warned: "Food standards in the UK are worse now that they were during the rationing during the war."
Dr Mark Temple, chairman of the British Medical Association's public health medicine committee, warned: "Food standards in the UK are worse now that they were during the rationing during the war."
Dr Temple said it was a "great tragedy" that children’s diets today are as unhealthy as the wartime diet.
He added: "That's a strong indictment on the food industry. Obesity is a major health threat and we ought to be doing something about it."
Dr Temple spoke out after a rise in the "old-fashioned wartime" illnesses in the former coal and steel areas of the Welsh valleys.
Dietician Sioned Quirke, who works in the Rhondda Valleys in South Wales, said a reliance on fast food was causing a rise in diseases last seen during the early 20th century.
Ms Quirke said: "For some population groups diet and nutrition has reverted back to being as poor as it was 100 years ago.
"The difference between now and then is that this is out of choice. People say that fruit and vegetables are not affordable when in fact they are."
Wartime rationing began in January 1940 and one person's typical weekly allowance would be: one fresh egg; 4oz margarine and bacon; 2oz butter and tea; 1oz cheese; and 8oz sugar.
Ms Quirke said she had seen increasing numbers of childhood diseases which specialists thought had died out.
She said: "Rickets and scurvy are coming back. When I was training 10 years ago we were told about these as past conditions and thought we would not come across them.
"These conditions are long-term. If the bones are affected by vitamin deficiency then they are affected for life."
Rickets is caused by a lack of calcium and vitamin D in a child's diet which comes from foods such as oily fish and eggs.
It causes the bones to become soft and malformed, which can lead to bone deformities.
Scurvy can develop from a lack of vitamin C, which is vital for the body to make the protein collagen.
Without vitamin C, collagen can not be replaced and the different types of tissue break down, leading to muscle and joint pain, bleeding and swelling of the gums.
The rise of historical diseases such as rickets and scurvy has coincided with an obesity epidemic.
The number of people with obesity in the UK has more than trebled in the last 25 years.
In England data from 2011 shows 24.8 per cent of adults and 16.3 per cent of children are obese.
A Government report claimed obesity will cost the NHS £6.4bn per year by 2015.
Ms Quirke said: "For some population groups diet and nutrition has reverted back to being as poor as it was 100 years ago.
"The difference between now and then is that this is out of choice. People say that fruit and vegetables are not affordable when in fact they are."
Wartime rationing began in January 1940 and one person's typical weekly allowance would be: one fresh egg; 4oz margarine and bacon; 2oz butter and tea; 1oz cheese; and 8oz sugar.
Ms Quirke said she had seen increasing numbers of childhood diseases which specialists thought had died out.
She said: "Rickets and scurvy are coming back. When I was training 10 years ago we were told about these as past conditions and thought we would not come across them.
"These conditions are long-term. If the bones are affected by vitamin deficiency then they are affected for life."
Rickets is caused by a lack of calcium and vitamin D in a child's diet which comes from foods such as oily fish and eggs.
It causes the bones to become soft and malformed, which can lead to bone deformities.
Scurvy can develop from a lack of vitamin C, which is vital for the body to make the protein collagen.
Without vitamin C, collagen can not be replaced and the different types of tissue break down, leading to muscle and joint pain, bleeding and swelling of the gums.
The rise of historical diseases such as rickets and scurvy has coincided with an obesity epidemic.
The number of people with obesity in the UK has more than trebled in the last 25 years.
In England data from 2011 shows 24.8 per cent of adults and 16.3 per cent of children are obese.
A Government report claimed obesity will cost the NHS £6.4bn per year by 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment